Hidden Lands of Western Armenia and the First Republic of 1918 Revealed in New Book

Stone Garden Press to Release 'The Armenian Highland' on April 15

PASADENA, Calif.—‘The Armenian Highland,’ a hardcover photo-history book celebrating the Armenian nation, will be published on April 15.

“This is an unusual book,” says author and photographer Matthew Karanian. “I have curated a photo-based historical guide to the ancient homeland of the Armenian nation, but I have focused on the part of Armenia that is today located entirely outside the borders of the modern Republic of Armenia.”

These lands are more commonly known today as Western Armenia or as Historic Armenia. But Karanian’s book refers to these lands by a much older name—the Armenian Highland.

The Armenian Highland is the geographic term that has been used for millennia to identify the highland plateau of Asia Minor. This vast Highland, also known as the Armenian Plateau, is the ancient homeland of the Armenians.

Karanian says the term ‘Armenian Highland’ also has a forward-looking connotation that is absent from the term Historic Armenia.

Author Matthew Karanian

“This is our homeland,” says Karanian about the Armenian Highland region. “It’s been our homeland for thousands of years. And it will be our homeland tomorrow, as well.”

The geographic name Armenian Highland fell into disuse during the decades that followed the Armenian Genocide when Turkey renamed the region and issued revised maps free of the Armenian name.

The Armenian Highland tells the history of the Armenians through a photographs, maps and the author’s scholarly research and fieldwork.

Modern color photos depict the ancient Armenian homeland—all the Armenian provinces of the former Ottoman Empire as well as Ani and Kars—as it exists today. Historic images show the same scenes as they appeared one century ago, often juxtaposed with stunning effect.

The field research and photography are original and are the products of the author’s travels throughout the Armenian Highland from 1997 through 2018.

The Armenian Highland also includes detailed maps that show the Armenian nation as it existed until 1915. Many of the maps are adapted from the works of cartographer and scholar of Armenian history Prof. Robert Hewsen. The book also includes antique maps by Mardiros Kheranian, a well-known cartographer whose maps are on display at Echmiadzin and Yerevan’s National Museum.

The text, the vivid photography and the detailed maps combine to create a single volume resource that introduces the reader to an Armenia that has rarely been seen since 1915.

“No other book has ever depicted the Armenian homeland in this manner,” says Karanian.

“The effect is a book that can reach our young people who may have forgotten about our roots, as well as an older readership that may have come to think of Historic Armenia as simply a topic for arcane scholarly research,” says Karanian.

Karanian is a lawyer in California. He is a passionate supporter of Armenia and has lived and worked in Yerevan as an associate dean and professor of law at the American University of Armenia.

The Armenian Highland will be available on Amazon and at most bookstores on April 15. Abril Bookstore in Glendale, Calif., will have advance copies available on April 8. The book is also available directly from the publisher Stone Garden Press at www.HistoricArmeniaBook.com

‘The Armenian Highland’ is printed in the USA on high quality archival paper and published by Stone Garden Press of Pasadena, California.

This article is a press release submitted to the Armenian Weekly and has been published to our community news section as a courtesy. If your organization has news it would like to submit to the paper for consideration, please email us at editor@armenianweekly.com. Please note that this service is reserved for organizations that engage in not-for-profit or humanitarian work in the Armenian community. Publication is not guaranteed.